Stuntdubl Business Search Marketing Consulting

Top 16 Reasons People Hate SEOs

I tend to take it a bit personal when people hate on SEO - I guess I do understand sometimes - I suppose it’s like being a lawyer or something, and I should probably just get used to it, but I enjoy search and optimization so much it just bugs me at times. It makes me wonder about the reasons WHY anyhow, so like usual - I thought I’d make a list. I TRIED to give a compliment and some constructive criticism for Digg today - and managed to get hated off the homepage. We’re really not all out to get you, nor bad people.

Top 16 Reasons People Hate SEO’s

    1. They don’t understand it
    2. They think it’s black magic
    3. Link valuation and buying is highly convoluted
    4. They still buy submission services
    5. Doug
    6. There’s only 10 spots
    7. They lost their FREE traffic to an SEO
    8. Blogspam
    9. Irrelevant search results suck
    10. They use MSN
    11. They think SEO’s are always up to something
    13. Like Mom says - they’re just jealous
    14. SEO’s can’t agree on anything *
    15. Bad SEO’s overpromise and underdeliver to get your business, and good SEO’s won’t take your business *
    16. The attack hook

*Thanks Andy

Do you have any theories on why people hate SEO’s so much?

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25 Comments Leave a comment »

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David
December 20th, 2006,
12:27 am

They believe that it is Cheating and is Unfair.

They don’t seem to realize that many SEO’s work very hard to give the searchers and search engines exactly what they are looking for. Good quality content. In essence it is playing by the rules - create high quality, unique content - that gets them to the top. Not reason #2.

Marc P
December 20th, 2006,
9:29 am

Interesting, but I’d say the number 1 reason, by a long shot, is that they were sold a submission service or some ranking reports, or both.

Chris Winfield
December 20th, 2006,
3:33 pm

The feeling that I get from digg users is overwhelmingly #11 (They think SEO’s are always up to something).

Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
December 20th, 2006,
3:42 pm

SearchCap: The Day In Search, Dec. 20, 2006…

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:……

Jim
December 20th, 2006,
3:47 pm

Where is reason #12?

Stuntdubl SEO
December 20th, 2006,
4:12 pm

haha…good eye Jim - ummm…it’s like the 13th floor of a hotel - I left it out for superstitions sake:)

barry
December 20th, 2006,
4:48 pm

Because they paid peanuts for their first SEO and got nothing. Then they realised how much quality SEO costs and decided to grudge instead.

imnotadoctor
December 20th, 2006,
5:19 pm

I think #15 is a major reason. People can’t get the bad taste out of their mouth from a horrible SEO experience.

Joe Whyte
December 20th, 2006,
8:14 pm

the attack hook! Don’t forget some SEO’s don’t shower.. Ohh and the SEO who thinks he knows everything.

RapidWeb
December 20th, 2006,
10:27 pm

Nice list. Its so true! I like 13. Like Mom says - they’re just jealous. Always tiring to out do Shoemoney’s payout!

Search Marketing Gurus | Search Marketing Tips, Advice, Strategies
December 21st, 2006,
12:50 am

All I Want For Christmas Is a Toad Stomping Elf?…

Yeah, odd title but I thought it might catch you by surprise! Tonight I bring you a link round up because so many people are bring the internet lots of neat things, and well I got sucked into watching one of my all time favorite Christmas Shows A Year …

Chris Sandberg
December 21st, 2006,
12:51 am

I think most people don’t really understand the SEO industry and view SEO as trying to cheat the search engines. BlackHats don’t help with many of the misconceptions people have about the SEO industry.

SEOidiot
December 21st, 2006,
9:38 am

Re 14… i dont agree

tim
December 21st, 2006,
1:48 pm

In the last 6 months, i have talked to about 700 small to medium sized online merchants (about 6/day).

Believe me, these guys have every right to distrust SEO - I am amazed on a daily basis at how much bad info, flat-out lies & ripped off merchants I come across.

In general, they want to improve their rankings but don’t know where to turn. They are so busy taking orders, loading products, shipping items, dealing with customer issues, dealing with vendors, accounting issues etc. they don’t have time to really find someone they can trust and afford.

Eric Itzkowitz
December 21st, 2006,
7:20 pm

17. Revenge of the Nerds came true!
—-> Today’s nerd makes more money than them.
—-> Today’s nerd is hip; chicks dig them.

(:

nuevojefe
December 21st, 2006,
11:47 pm

#99 because we get them rankings, traffic, and then they’re not equipped to handle it. And that’s our fault.

Ilija Djivic
December 23rd, 2006,
3:22 pm

I ddidi not heard that people hate SEO, im my country (Croatia) just love it :)

rumblepup
December 27th, 2006,
3:26 pm

Because as much as we follow SEO and SEM, your average business web owner doesn’t. When I have to suggest redesigns, renames, text and content suggestions, the owners go nuts.

I actually had a site owner that thought that “Targeting a keyword” meant adding it to the meta keywords tag. I instruct to the best of my ability, but sometimes they really and honestly think they can do it all themselves.

Because the average site owner is not up to speed on search technology, they think that SEO’s, SEM’s lie to them, or are concocting something in order to get business.

Dave White
December 29th, 2006,
11:59 am

Well I do agree to all the top 16 reasons why people hate SEO. But the bottom-line is that they do not have a proper understanding about it and the second thing or due to this reason they fall prey to the corrupt minds and then such mis-concepts develop among them.
I have been doing Seo for a good time and the benefits that I derive from it are tremendous.I have also helped many others without any fees and they were also amazed by the positive results that came after using SEO techniques.
Without proper knowledge using anything is just an open invitation to negativity.

Tim Linden
January 8th, 2007,
3:52 pm

My reason “I can’t get it to work”. I’ve got a site that is 5 years old and is considered one of the top sites in the industry. Yet new copy cat sites can start up and rank higher than me in a week. So I’m not sure if it’s me hating SEO, or rather just hating new sites doing better.

seo australia
January 14th, 2007,
12:22 am

There could be many other reasons like: wiki spam, mirror websites, content spam, link farms, keyword stuffing but all that is a natural progression in designing more precise and foolproof algorithms by search engine companies.

Matt Bailey
February 2nd, 2007,
12:26 am

LOL @ Doug.

Friggin’ hilarious.

Tom Dalton
February 6th, 2007,
7:51 pm

I’ll tell you why I hate it — it undermines the integrity of the Internet. Ever seen a movie and come away thinking, “that was clearly designed by committee?”

The SEO industry moves the Internet in that direction. The simplest organizational pieces (accurate meta tags, clear descriptions, etc.) are okay, but everything beyond that — the link recruitment, the sales tactics and the way the industry has evolved, the content creation… The spammy sites that have popped up, scrapers and duplicate content penalties, endless arguments over the precise weight of meta tags… That basically SEOs are bottom feeders, adding little overall value to the Internet (except, again, for the basic value of increased, clear organization).

Those sorts of things. I have a complex love/hate relationship with SEO, really, I suppose. Today’s a “hate” day, and this post provided the channel I needed to get some of it out.

Thank you.

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